Posted on 04/10/2008
It's the first night of the 2008 South by Southwest Music Conference, and Dizzee Rascal is far from his home in London. He's got a handful of performances scheduled over the next five days, including a spot on the UGK Family/Hot 93 bill and the showcase put together by Def Jux (the label that's distributing his latest release, Maths + English, in the U.S.), two high-profile slots on one of the most maddeningly hectic music conferences in the country.

It sounds like it'd be an overwhelming prospect, but the rapper/producer is already a veteran of SXSW. At the forefront of the UK grime/garage rap movement in 2003, Dizzee (born Dylan Mills) won his country's Mercury Prize for his debut album Boy in Da Corner and became an international fixture in hip hop and indie circles alike - all at the age of 18.

"When I first came out here, I was dumbstruck and baffled, dealing with fame and this mad lunatic place called America," he says in his hotel room, hours before taking the stage with Bun B and company. "But now I understand it. I'm old enough to appreciate it now, back then I really didn't quite get it."

It was at that year's SXSW that Dizzee met Bun B, an encounter that led to a pair of collaborations with UGK (on Underground Kingz's "Two Types of B******" and the forthcoming single from Maths + English, "Where's Da G's"). It's been a career highlight for Dizzee. "I never met Pimp C; I always missed him, he was always all over the place, but I got to talk on the phone with him," Dizzee says with admiration. "Bun B was like an uncle to me, though. I have a lot of fucking respect for him. UGK - that's soul-soothing music. And I'll be a part of their legacy forever, I've secured that through working with them, so I'm very happy about that."   

"Where's Da G's," already a single in the UK, received the remix treatment on the U.S. version of Maths + English from none other than Def Jux label head El-P, with whom Dizzee will tour with through May. "My deal was up with XL [which distributed Maths overseas], so my management connected with Def Jux," Dizzee explains. "I'd never really heard of them or knew who they were. I was out in New York for a week and met El-P and Amaechi [Uzoigwe, Def Jux co-founder], and they're cool guys. I had heard El's remix through laptop speakers, but I just heard it properly the other day. It sounded really good."

Though the album doesn't necessarily fit the stereotypical ‘Def Jux sound,' Maths + English is a bit of a departure in the Dizzee Rascal discography. "I was just trying to simplify my flow and make the music a little bit differently. I love rap and I went for a more straight up approach so that people could better understand what I'm saying," he says.  With that broadening of lyrical style and the music on Maths breaking out of the confines of the grime genre, it's a record that could appeal to wider audiences, but also alienate grime die-hards.

"I'm still trying to push the boundaries of music and find myself within that. There's a lot of content, not just party music or ignorant shit," he continues. "And when that is there, it's there for the purpose of fun. I want this to be the most fun album I've done. Everybody's pretty much bored and looking for something else in hip hop. In the beginning, I paid attention to what people said about my album because it was new and I was obviously excited, but now I don't even care. All that matters for me now is the reaction of the crowds when I'm in the middle of a set."
 
"Some people like it, some don't. There's people who can pick on everything; if they don't like it, they weren't going to in the first place," he dismisses. "If we forget genres and all that bollocks, it's just me moving on from fucking 2002. It's 2008, of course it's supposed to sound different! If I had made it the same, I'd get cracked on because I'm not underground anymore. So they can suck my dick."      

Well put. Beyond touring the States, Dizzee's got a full schedule ahead of him, with a new release from the Newham Generals set to drop on his own Dirtee Stank label and a fourth album already in the works with a release aimed towards next year. The kid doesn't come across as an egomaniac, but it's hard not to be amped up in response to his reality, as he prepares to take the stage in Texas alongside its hometown's legends. His style of hip hop may not become embraced by the average head anytime soon, but Dizzee hardly seems concerned.

"My third album is out, it's my biggest launch in America, and I'm coming out with Bun B. That's the hood locked, that's landmark hip hop, and they've reached out to me at a time where they're at the top. It don't get much better than that, considering I'm from East London, let's be real."

- Sean Kantrowitz